St George's House,
Northern Police Orphanage.
1898-1956
Harrogate, Yorkshire, England.
Introduction - Home
St George's House, original building and main entrance, Otley Road, Harrogate. Yorkshire, England.
The Aim of this website...
to provide a historical record of the
life and activities of the orphan children
all of whom came from families of
Police officers, also to make the
information available to anyone who
may be interested, including:
Descendents of the Gurney family.
St George's House Orphans
Families of the St George's boys & girls.
Police Historians.
Genealogists.
Members of the UK Police Force.
St George's Police Trust.
Educational institutions.
The general public.
The Orphanage was founded
in 1897 by Miss Catherine Gurney OBE for the care and welfare of
Police Force children who had lost one or both
parents. The children were housed at the Northern Police Orphanage,
located on 12 acres of land on
Otley Road, Harrogate until they were relocated to Albany Lodge,
Hereford Road, Harrogate. From January 1898 when
the first child, Minnie Smith from Sunderland was taken in, until
closure in 1956 due to the declining numbers of children in need, a
total of 644 children had passed through the doors of St George's (the
names of the children cared for can be seen on 'List of Children' page).
Refer following page 'Catherine Gurney', for details of her aims and
achievements.
Albany
Lodge.......
From it's inception, St George's House Orphanage operated from Otley Road
until January
1955, when it was relocated to Albany Lodge,16 Hereford Rd, Harrogate,
finally closing it's
doors in August the following year.
The pages (see list top
left), supported by many photographs, tell some of the story of what
life was like for the children living
in an English Orphanage in the late 1800's and early to mid 1900's. In
particular, we recommend that you read the stories written
by some of the old boys and girls describing their experiences, these are
located on the Memories page.
Deus vult